The Brothers Blue

"It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses."

"Hit it."

If you know this quote as well as the back of your hand, we can remain friends...if not, go now to Netflix and watch The Blues Brothers and enjoy the ride. Come back as friend again.

"We're on a mission from God."

They really are. Maybe in the movie it was to save the fat penguin's orphanage but to me it was about introducing me to the music. Throw in the ridiculous and downright zany slapstick humour and you have, in my humble opinion, one hell of a great movie. Racing through the streets of Chicago in their bargain basement reformed cop car with cop tires, cop motor and cop shocks, lovingly known as the Bluesmobile, they elude the law, Illinois Nazi's and by the end of it all, seemingly, the entire US Army, in an effort to raise $5000 to pay the tax bill for the Saint Helen of the Blessed Shroud orphanage.  Aaron Sorkin it is not but holy hell is it ever funny.

And than the music. Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, John Lee Hooker and James Brown to name a few. How could it not be great. From James Browns Reverend Cleophus singing the Old Landmark and shuffling like only he could shuffle to Ray Charles getting us all to shake our tail feather. From Aretha Franklin demanding respect to The Blues Brothers themselves giving everybody some love. 

"Your women. I want to buy your women. The little girl, your daughters... 

sell them to me. Sell me your children!"

This movie was about excess from the get go, why crash one car when you can crash 75 of them? Why use a gun when you can use a rocket launcher to kill the man that left you at the alter? It's completely silly to think that two sunglasses wearing ex cons would need every cop in Chicago, a SWAT team as well the US Army with a tank to take them down but they pull it off because you know they are on that mission from God. That and trying to run over the fucking Illinois Nazis endears them to us all. You want one more song, one more zany twist...hell you want twenty more.

"We're so glad to see so many of you lovely people here tonight. And we would especially like to welcome all the representatives of Illinois's law enforcement community that have chosen to join us here in the Palace Hotel Ballroom at this time. We certainly hope you all enjoy the show. And remember, people, that no matter who you are and what you do to live, thrive and survive, there're still some things that makes us all the same. You. Me. Them. Everybody. Everybody."

For me, it's a kind of escapism that really presses all the buttons. Music, first and foremost, that hits the right chord. Being a rocker by nature anything blues related, the mother of rock 'n roll, is sure to grab my attention. As has happened often enough, being exposed to a, new to me, genre through a movie or TV show opened the doors to further exploration. I remember when I was learning to badly play the bass I had a blues instruction record that I learned to play to...I really enjoyed those impromptu jam sessions that were based on some simple chord progressions that even I could understand. Simple and complex...and pure.

And than the comedy. Not at all nuanced, it is right there in your face all the way through. Both ridiculous and zany but delivered with such dead pan perfection. Who good forget this piece of diner gold as Jake and Elwood looked for Matt Guitar Murphy and Blue Lou to rejoin the band.

May I help you boys?

You got any white bread?

 Yes.

I'll have some toasted white bread please.

 You want butter or jam on that toast, honey?

 No ma'am, dry.

 Got any fried chicken?

 Best damn chicken in the state.

 Bring me four fried chickens and a Coke.

 You want chicken wings or chicken legs?

 Four fried chickens and a Coke.

 And some dry white toast please.

 Y'all want anything to drink with that?

 No ma'am.

 A Coke.

 Be up in a minute

All rock musicians today owe a debt of gratitude to those that came before them, the ones that took the blues electric, added drums and amplification...you stand on the shoulders of those that fell in love with the blues and made it their own. There is almost a purity to the music and I owe my appreciation of it to this little movie...not to mention, in no small part, my sense of whacked humour.

Hit it

Ciao

D